In yoga class yesterday I was watching people grimace and clench and hold their breath as they strived to go deeper into a pose that maybe didn't need so much depth. Their posture was being sacrificed.
I know I have talked about this many times so I will keep this short.
What is the purpose of your depth in postures? What are you compromising to go deeper? Some days we want the emotional release, some days we want to show off, some days we want to achieve and all of those are very human things that we all face, but the purpose of yoga is to let go of those things and allow it to be what it is, where it is, why it is.
If you lose track of your breath in the posture you have gone to far. The breath should be an honoring to your body, it should be steady, reliable, soothing, and supportive.
You deserve a practice that restores your body, and I do not mean that you have to do slow yin or restorative yoga to achieve that, just that you need to listen to your body and its limits so that it can achieve optimum results. And that happens not when we are trying but when we are letting go. The breath is your whisper of boundaries. Listen to it and enjoy your practice. You do not need to be better than you already are.
